Keith Battle - A House of Pain - Part 3

I’ve been doing a series called «A House of Pain,» and I want to continue today in that series. We have been focusing on 1 Chronicles, chapter 4. There’s an Old Testament book named 1 Chronicles, and if you want to follow along as we examine this passage together, you can turn to 1 Chronicles, chapter 4, in any device or your own copy of Scripture. If you don’t want to do that, to make it user-friendly, all the verses will appear on the screen for you to follow along. So, it will be cool either way. When you get to 1 Chronicles, chapter 4, we will focus on verses 9 and 10 today. Again, my sincere gratitude and appreciation go to We Are Zion music; we are just spoiled by such great singing and fantastic musicianship. I am so grateful for them; they’re good people, too. Amen? That makes it even better. Amen. All right, we are in chapter 4 of 1 Chronicles, and already they’re ready for me. Let me read. It says in verse 9: «There was a man named Jabez who was more honorable than any of his brothers. His mother named him Jabez because his birth had been so painful. He was the one who prayed to the God of Israel, 'Oh, that you would bless me and expand my territory! Please be with me in all that I do and keep me from all trouble and pain.' And God granted him his request.»

Now I’ve called this a «House of Pain» because obviously there was pain in this context. He grew up in a painful environment. Like all of us, we all live in some kind of situation or circumstance that involves pain. It might be medical, it might be relational, it could be financial, or it could be a number of things; it could be psychological. But no one’s life is so perfect and pristine that it is absent of pain. We all exist in situations we wish were different in some way or that have challenged us or even changed us in certain ways. Jabez and his family are no different. His mother had him after a painful birth and named him according to her feelings at that time. He actually prays a prayer that jumped out at me again. He is essentially saying to God, «Don’t let me live up to my name.» I know that they called me this, but in that prayer, he is asking, «May I not cause pain? Keep me out of trouble and pain. Don’t let me be the cause of pain. Don’t let me fulfill what I’m called.» This is very significant, and I want to talk about seven observations today, and then we’ll be done.

The first observation I’d like to make is what I call «Painkillers.» Everybody say «Painkillers.» Yeah, I can tell; I just want to see how many people in the room are engaging with me. Put it in the chat: «Painkillers, painkillers.» Back in verse 9, it jumped out at me this week as I looked at this passage regarding his brothers. What were his brothers like? The Bible leaves much unsaid about this family. Not much is said about Jabez, and even less is said about his mother. There’s hardly anything said about his brothers, but we do know that he was more honorable than them. So, how do we know? How do we know from what we’re given that he was more honorable than his brothers? Well, it says he was more honorable than his brothers in verse 9, and then verse 10 states that he was the one who prayed to the God of Israel. Hmm. He had brothers and siblings in his family; they all grew up in the same household and the same painful environment. They all had the same story. They definitely had the same mother.

Imagine a painful environment like this; they grew up in a house mentioned in this biblical account, and the father is never even referenced. Now, you can say what you want, but «I don’t miss my father; I never needed him anyway.» However, growing up in a fatherless environment is painful. It’s painful simply based on comparison alone. What could have been? What would I have been if my father had been there? What could I have become if my father had taught me this? What would I have become with a better example? There’s no father there, and he exists in a fatherless environment with his siblings. His mother assigns him a name based on her feelings at that moment, which creates a painful environment. So what made him more honorable than his brothers had to be related to how he handled the environment. The Bible says he was the one who prayed, so it doesn’t say his brothers were dishonorable; it doesn’t say to what degree they were dishonorable. It just states he was more honorable than his brothers.